Information handling system



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United States Patent f 3,162,4ti INFORMATION HANDLING SYSTEM William A.Robison, Jr., Pittsburgh, Pa., assigner to Westinghouse Air BrakeCompany, Wilmerding, la., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Apr. 14,1958, Ser. No. 728,230 18 Claims. (Ci. 24d- 2) My invention relates toan information handling system, and in particular to apparatus for thestorage and transfer of information for use in automatic control orindication.

In many control and indication problems, input data to be processed forthe production of control orindication signals is not available at thetime when it is required for use, or many items of information which areobtained at different times must be processed simultaneously, forexample, in copending application Serial No. 67 6,730, filed August 7,1957, by David P. Fitzsimmons and vWilliam A. Robison, lr., forAutomatic ControlV System for Railway Classication Yards, which isassigned to the assignee of my present application, a system isdisclosed for automatically routing cuts of one or more cars to selectedstorage track destinations, while a-t the same time controlling thespeed at which they couple with preceding cars on Athe storage tracks.In such a System, the group retarder offers the last opportunity for thecorrection of the speed of each cut of cars before it reaches thedesignated body track. Accordingly, the problem of selecting the leavingspeed of a cut of cars from a group retarder so that it will couple withythe preceding cars on the designated body track at a safe speed isessentially one of predicting the performance of the cut from the pointat which it leaves the group retarder to the point of coupling. Thisdistance traversed by each cut consists of a curved portion includingone or more switches, and a tangent portion which is longer or shorterin accordance with the fullness of the body track to which the cut isdirected. Since the control of the speed of the cut in the groupretarder must be accomplished before the cut leaves the group retarder,there are provided suitable curved and tangent measuring sections aheadof these retarders for measuring the rolling resistances on curvedandtangent track, and a computer for correlating the rolling resistances onthe measuring sections with those onl the tangent sections. It thenbecomes necessary to supply the various measuredquantities `to thecomputer at the proper time. Accordingly, it is n desirable to providemeans for storing the measurementsl as they are made and transferringthem to the computer.

It is an object of my present invention to provide novel y pendingapplication.

ICC

when it is desired to make use of the rolling resistance measurement incalculating the desired leaving speed of the cut from the group retarderin the selected route of the cut.

I shall describe one formk of apparatus embodying my invention andshalll then point out the novel features thereof in claims.

I have illustrated an embodiment of my invention which is adapted to beemployed in `a classification yard of the type disclosed in abovecopending application. Only those components of the system disclosed insaid copending application which are necessary to make my disclosurecomplete and to an understanding of my invention have been illustrated,and in several instances these components have been illustrated in blockdiagram form. However, the correspondence between schematicallyillustrated com ponents and those shown in detail in the above mentionedcopending application will be readily apparent to those skilled in the.art as the description proceeds.

In order to simplify the illustration of the circuits employed in myinvention, I have not shown the necessary power supplies in detail. Oneof these power supplies is a conventional source of D.C. voltage havingpositive and negative terminals, connections to which lare schematicallyindicated on the drawings by the reference characters B and N,respectively, associated with arrow symbols indicating connections tothe battery terminals. The additional power supplies required are shownschematically by a control lead carried from component to component anda ground lead which is returned to a common ground as conventionallyindicated. The circuits so shown will be readily identied with thoseshown in detail in the copending application.

in the drawings,

FIG. l comprises a chart showing the manner in which FIGS. 2 through 19should be arranged in order todisclose in detail one embodiment of myinvention. l

FIGS.` 2 through 19, when arranged in the manner shown in FIG. 1,comprise a schematic wiring diagram of one embodiment of my invention.

Referring now lto the drawings, I have illustrated -several routes in aclassification yard. These routes are approached from a common routecomprising an entrance end including a hump and an approach tracksection AT, as shown in FIG. 2. Following approach track section AT is amaster retarder comprising two track sections MRiT and MRZT. Followingthe master retarder is a switch designated -SW which is provided with adetector lowed by a track switch .7a-4W provided with a detector Otherobjects and characteristicv features of my invention will .becomeapparent as the description proceeds. rInaccomplis'ning the foregoingobject of my invention,

yI employ apparatus comprising a plurality of storage .units f forystoring electronic voltages, ymeans for detecting the ,occupied orunoccupied condition of the storage units, means for selecting `an.unoccupied storage unit and applying a measured value of rollingresistance for storage in thatunit, means lfor developing `acodeidentifying the selected'storage unit, means for transmitting the vcodealong the route of a cut of cars the rolling resistance of 1 which hasbeen stored, and means for interpreting the y `'code and interrogatingthe proper storage unit to select the f stored value of rollingresistance pertaining to the cut track section designated -ttT., Trackvswitchesvl-SW, l-LiW, S-SW, 1-2W and 3-4W control the routesto storagetracks l through' 8, 1 through 4, 5 through 8, 1 and `Z, and 3 and d,respectively. A

group retarder. This track vsection is shown in the approachto groupretarder l-ZGR and isdesignated CIAT.

Each of the track sections just described is, in practice, provided withtrack circuits in the manner fully disclosed in the said copendingapplication Serial No. 676,730.

Since the majority ol these track circuits are not involved PatentedDec, 22, 1964l

1. IN COMBINATION, A SERIES OF SIGNAL STORAGE DEVICES, CIRCUIT MEANS FORSUCCESSIVELY SELECTING THE FIRST DEVICE OF SAID SERIES VOID OF A SIGNALSTORAGE AND STORING IN EACH SELECTED DEVICE ONE OF A SUCCESSION OFSIGNALS, MEANS FOR ESTABLISHING A CODE IDENTIFYING EACH SAID SELECTEDSTORAGE DEVICE, MEANS FOR TRANSFERRING EACH SAID CODE OVER A CIRCUITNETWORK TO A SELECTED POINT, RELAY MEANS AT EACH SAID SELECTED POINT FORINTERPRETING EACH SAID CODE AND INTERROGATING THE SIGNAL STORAGE DEVICEIDENTIFIED WITH EACH SAID CODE, CIRCUIT NETWORK MEANS FOR TRANSFERRINGTO EACH SAID SELECTED POINT THE SIGNAL STORED IN EACH INTERROGATEDSIGNAL STORAGE DEVICE, AND CIRCUIT MEANS CONTROLLED BY EACH SAIDTRANSFERRED SIGNAL.